Downpour
by Vicious Whispers
Summary: Twoshot. "It was very quiet too. Nothing but the sounds of rain repeatedly pelting the roof." A bit of irrelevant historical inaccuracy in the first part. Sorry, I can't write summaries. T for very slight language.
1. Then,

**I'm fully aware that this story is historically inaccurate, so you don't need to point that out. I had the idea for the story, and the idea of how I wanted to start it, and I just went from there. I didn't feel the need to change little things like transportation or streetlights, since they mean very little to the plotline. If it bugs you that much, don't read it.**

**Okay, so this should have been posted MONTHS ago. Literally. I just got into such a writers block with it that I pushed it aside. There'll be another part to it soonish. I just need to find some time and inspiration.**

**This is yet again written for Earthquakeonmind, still because she's my amazing America & cause I love her & stuff. c:**

**I don't own Hetalia or it's characters, and I'm not claiming to.**

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* * *

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"_Please, Artie. Please don't leave me alone." Alfred wiped his nose with his sleeve, and watched as his caretaker made his way to the door._

_Arthur sighed and grabbed a nearby box of tissues. He handed one to Alfred. "Use this, not your sleeve."_

_Alfred did as he was told, but his sky blue eyes never left Arthur's emerald ones. "Why do you leave me here all alone? Don't you love me?" A few lone tears fell from his colonies eyes, which made it all the more heartbreaking._

"_Alfred, of course I love you. You're like my little brother. You know I don't want t' leave all the time." Alfred's expression was killing him. He looked away. "I'll be back soon, I promise. People will check up on you until I do." He walked until he was in the doorframe, until he looked back at Alfred. He was no longer staring at Arthur, but rather at the floor. Small drops of water fell around his feet._

_Arthur sighed and shut the door behind him._

_Alfred's head shot up. "He didn't even say goodbye…"_

_

* * *

_

The sky was a purplish red. Alfred sat on the couch and stared out the window, watching the sunset, once again. He was waiting for Arthur to come home, like he had been since he left.

"He'll be home today, I just know it." Alfred said to himself. He'd been saying that to himself for over three months now. It didn't make it any truer.

Arthur was visiting his other colonies. That's what he did when he went on these trips. The shorter ones were usually when he'd talk to his boss, but when he went on these really long ones, Alfred knew that he was visiting Australia or Hong Kong. A few times, he had even gone to France to visit Matthew. And he _hated_ Francis and his country.

After Alfred started to grow up, Arthur started spending less and less time with him. He left Alfred alone for longer periods of time. This was the longest. Arthur hadn't even called Alfred, or wrote him a letter.

In fact, nobody ever checked up on him either.

A deliveryman brought food to Alfred every week. Said deliveryman never even questioned why a young boy was always answering the door.

Alfred glanced at the clock. The seconds neared 7:30. He counted back from five as he stared out the window. When he got to zero, the streetlights all turned on. Alfred had been doing this for nearly three months now.

With a defeated sigh, Alfred backed himself off his kneeling position on the couch. "Arthur's not coming home tonight." Tears stung at his eyes. "Arthur's probably not coming home at all… He has too much fun with Aussie and Hong Kong and Matthew." Alfred got himself in bed, and stared at the ceiling until he fell asleep, like he had been doing for over three months.

A loud clap of thunder woke him up about fifteen minutes later.

* * *

Arthur sat with his right leg resting on his left knee in one of the uncomfortable plastic chairs in the airport. He was just outside of London. He only had a thirty-minute flight to sit through. But of course, a storm had to delay his flight. It wasn't even that bad of a storm. If Arthur had access to a car, he could easily drive through it. But he had taken a cab to the airport, and didn't have enough on him to take one back home. Just enough to get him back from his original airport.

Arthur hadn't planned to be gone as long as he had been. When you were a nation, three months was a very little amount of time. He had lost track of it while visiting his other colonies. And he would never admit it aloud, but he was having a nice time in France. Though, that did _not_ mean he was having a nice time with _Francis_. He wished France would just give up Matthew. He was, after all, Alfred's twin brother. And if Francis thought for one moment that Arthur would be willing to give up _Alfred_ so the brothers could be together, he had another thing coming.

Arthur flashed another look at the board of flights and suppressed a groan. This was bloody ridiculous. A thunderstorm was really going to delay the flight this long? This was London, England. It rained all the bloody time. Arthur was sure that if he was allowed, he could have navigated through it without a problem. Airplanes were, after all, painfully simple transportation to use.

There was another flash from the windows, and the lights in the airport flickered a few times. The abrupt darkness made Arthur flinch, and he could hear the brief noises of shock among the others in the airport. A-Alright, maybe the storm was a bit worse than Arthur had originally thought.

It was nearly three hours later when Arthur finally stumbled into his home, completely soaked from the rain. The storm hardly let up, and he was beginning to wonder if he was even going to make it home that night. Hell, the cab he was in had to swerve so much that he had wondered if he was going to make it home at all.

_Alfred must be asleep. It's so bloody dark in here._ It was very quiet too. Nothing but the sounds of rain repeatedly pelting the roof.

Arthur shut the door behind himself, closing it with his foot, and was instantly plunged into darkness. He'd been staring at the darkness for a while now, so his eyes were slightly adjusted, but he still groped around the wall in front of him to find the light switch. He heard it flip more than he saw it.

Nothing happened. He flipped back and forth again.

"Bloody hell, the power got knocked out." He sighed. "Guess it doesn't matter. I'll be going to bed, anyhow." Arthur proceeded to remove his shoes with just his heel and the toe of his other shoe, too exhausted to take them off properly. He set them down, only to place them on Alfred's tiny shoes. He smiled to himself at Alfred's show of good manners and placed them next to his in the dark. Arthur turned around, and dragged his hand along the wall next to him, groping his way in the dark towards the stairs.

That's when he heard the sobbing.

He paused for a moment, cocking his ear towards the upper level of his home from the bottom of the stairs. It was an odd noise. It wasn't as high pitched as Arthur was used to hearing from Alfred. It was so faint that maybe Arthur was imagining it. If he didn't pay attention, it easily blended into the pour of rain.

It completely drowned away when the storm decided to return with a vengeance.

In the course of a few moments, there was a flash of light, a loud boom, and a shrill scream from upstairs. A scream that was undoubtedly Alfred's.

"Hell, he was never afraid of storms before." Arthur muttered to himself, before climbing up the stairs, making his way to Alfred's room. Arthur realized the minute he said it, that Alfred always _was_ afraid of the storms, but he'd always be there to tell the boy it was okay, and comfort him until he fell asleep.

"Alfred?" Arthur called out, popping his head into his colonies bedroom. There was another flash of light and a crack of thunder. The cry that soon followed did not come from the room Arthur was half in, but rather a different one.

It took a few more minutes, and plenty more thunder and cries, before Arthur finally located Alfred. He was huddled under the blanket in Arthur's room, and curled up in a mass in the center. A noticeably bigger mass than Arthur remembered him being when he left. Which explained why his cry sounded different to the Briton.

"Alfred? Al, it's okay, it's just a storm." The blob in the center of the bed stopped shuddering and whimpering for a moment. "I'm home, Alfred. C'mon, you can come out now."

"A-Arthur…?" The young boy whimpered from under the covers. "N-No, I can't come out, i-it's dark out there."

Arthur smirked and groped his way around in the dark, so that he could kneel down by the shaking mass in the middle of his bed. "It's darker in there, silly. If you'd just wait for your eyes to adjust, you can actually see out here."

Alfred hesitated. "B-But…there are monsters and ghosts in the dark. They can't find me under here."

Arthur wondered for a moment if Alfred was just arguing for the sake of arguing. "You don't trust me to protect you from the monsters and ghosts?" Arthur made sure to slip in a bit of mock-hurt in his tone.

"W-What if y-you're a monster or g-ghost? Y-You haven't b-been here in three months, h-how do I know y-your not trying to t-trick me?" Alfred mumbled out, his voice cracking at the beginning of his second sentence.

Arthur had to admit, despite his warped logic, Alfred had a point. "Well, how can I prove to you that I'm not a monster, if you won't come out, then?" Alfred didn't reply other than a faint, 'I dunno' and Arthur sighed. "Well…how about if I show you myself?"

The mass of blankets didn't reply, so Arthur maneuvered his hand under the blanket, to try to find the frightened boy inside. Through the darkness, he saw a movement in the mound, and heard a yelp. He smiled. "Here, see, I'm not a monster. It's just my hand. Go ahead and see for yourself."

There was a hesitation, before he felt Alfred's smaller hand grope around in the blanket before it finally found Arthur's. It was slightly damp, probably from Alfred's tears and the steam from him breathing under the blanket for god knows how long. "H-How do I know y-your not a g-ghost?" Alfred whimpered.

"If I was a ghost, you wouldn't be feeling my hand." Arthur answered back immediately. "Do you believe me now?"

Alfred's response was to tug with a great force on Arthur's arm. Arthur felt his body shoved against the edge of the mattress, and Alfred was still pulling. With the colony's strength, Arthur seriously worried that his arm wouldn't still be attached in a few moments. "Alright, alright. Don't rip my arm off, Alfred." The tugging faltered and Arthur slid himself onto the bed, reaching for the mass in the center.

Alfred didn't need to be pulled. The instant he felt Arthur's weight hit the mattress, the young colony found his way out of the blanket cave, and wormed his way into Arthur's arms. He sobbed quietly. "I-It was scary here w-without y-you…I-I missed y-you…D-Don't leave a-again…"

Arthur bit his lower lip before pressing a light kiss to the top of Alfred's head. He knew he had to leave within the next few weeks. "I missed you too, Alfred. It'll all be okay…I promise." He left it at that, because couldn't bear to lie to the colony.

The two fell into a silence, mostly because Alfred was losing the battle to stay awake. Arthur could feel the little boy's body start to go limper as each moment passed. Even when Arthur was sure the boy was asleep, he was equally sure that the small body would involuntarily twitch with each clap of thunder.

And even though Arthur was sure Alfred was asleep, he never felt Alfred's chubby little hands release their tight hold to his shirt.


	2. And Now

**So this took like three million years longer than it should have. And I don't even know how much I like it. D:**  
**This is a public apology to my America that I'm such a failure at fics, or at least getting them done in a reasonable time. xD**

* * *

"Please. _Please_ tell me you're joking, Alfred."

Alfred shot a confused look back at Arthur. Arthur, along with a great portion of the rest of the countries were all just gaping. Though, why they were all gaping was completely beyond Arthur. Alfred spewing out nonsense was _really_ nothing new. "What? I think that having everyone making a few ice cube trays and throwing the ice cubes into the poles is a fine idea to save the whales. It's economically friendly too!"

Arthur ran a hand down his face in frustration. Really, could someone just _please_ kill him right now? He hated everyone in this room. Idiots, the lot of them. "Global warming, Alfred. You were talking about _global warming_. And—"

"Tomato, to-ma-to." Alfred said with a shrug.

Out of the corner of his eye, Arthur caught Spain's eyes gleam. "No, it's _not_ the same thing, actually. Saving the fucking whales is not the same thing as stopping global warming. And with this… this _ice cube_ scheme you have… how in the hell do you expect that to help at _all_?"

Alfred shot Arthur a look as if he was the stupidest man alive. "Uh, people use ice cubes to cool down liquids. _Duh_, Arthur. Plus, maybe they'd all melt together like they sometimes do and recreate an iceberg or something!" Alfred leaned back smugly in his chair. It was amazing how sometimes his good ideas bred _new_ good ideas that he hadn't even thought about!

Arthur was gaping again. Where the fuck was Vash? He needed a gun, and he needed it now.

Germany looked up from where he appeared to be banging his head on the table, moving to stand up again and take control of the meeting before Arthur could go over and throttle Alfred. But his voice was cut out by a loud snap of thunder.

And Alfred did not shriek like a girl when it happened. Nope, he… he gave a shout of surprise. A manly one!

"Well," Arthur sighed, placing his elbows on the table and holding his head in his hands. "I guess that's the storm they were speaking of on the news this morning. Hopefully it's not too distracting."

As if on cue, the lights flickered and then went out. And Alfred _didn't_ scream again. It was the wind.

Arthur sighed and rubbed his temples. He was going to have a massive headache soon. Lovely. "Is there an emergency kit in here anywhere? It'd be nice to be able to see for more than two seconds." Four candles were suddenly placed on the conference table and lit. Arthur _really_ didn't want to know why Francis had candles with him. Knowing Francis, it was probably for vulgar reasons.

England sighed and let his eyes get used to the little amount of light. The other countries seemed to have all decided at once that the meeting was over, and begun chatting amongst themselves. Except for Feliciano, who had been startled by the power outage and was currently being comforted by Ludwig, and yelled at by his brother.

Arthur sighed, glancing around the table some more. It took him a second to notice that America's chair was empty. He glanced around quickly again, spotting him talking to France a few chairs down. Wait, wait no. That was Alfred's brother. Cana-something or other. But he wasn't important right now. What _was_ important was the fact that Alfred wasn't in this room.

Arthur sighed and pulled one of the candles from off of the table, hoping nobody would notice the lack of a bit of light. Knowing Alfred, he probably was going to do something stupid, like go back to the hotel in this weather. And as much as Arthur wanted to back to his hotel room, he wasn't going to leave until this storm died down a little. He had a vague memory of an almost unfortunate incident with a cab in a storm like this.

The candle did little good once Arthur was out in the hallway. It was a tiny light, and it didn't illuminate much more than a foot in front of him. But, he supposed it was better than nothing. He only needed to get to the entrance before Alfred and stop him from leaving, since he'd rather not spend time in a hospital waiting for the idiot to recover. Alfred was co-dependant and hospital chairs were bloody uncomfortable.

"Alfred, get back here. It'll do no good to leave in this weather." Arthur called into an empty hallway, hearing no signs of life. Fantastic. He kept moving towards where he assumed the entrance to be.

Until he heard a clap of thunder and a shrill scream from the other end of the hallway. Oh lord, he knew that scream. He'd have to hear it every time he was forced to watch a horror movie with Alfred. Arthur turned sharply in the other direction, causing the sensitive flame of the candle to blow out. "God fucking dammit," he curse, tossing the candle to the side, and moving quickly towards where he heard the noise.

Arthur hadn't the faintest idea why he was rushing as if Alfred was dying or something. But everything that was happening was like a strange feeling of déjà vu that he couldn't shake, and thus his body moved him forward quickly.

"Al? Alfred? God dammit, where are you?" Arthur's voice seemed to be getting more and more frantic as he continued blindly down the hallway, with only Alfred's whimpers that would come out every minute or so. Arthur popped his head into all of the open rooms, calling Alfred's name, and coming up empty every time. Why did this feel like it had happened before?

Finally, Arthur found the room that Alfred was in, when he was met with a cry that seemed right in front of him, after a particularly loud snap of thunder. Arthur squinted to try to see where the American could be hiding, slowly moving his arms around and feeling like a bloody idiot. "Al? Al, you're in here ri—AUGH."

Arthur hit the floor hard, after tripping on something rather large. It took a less than ten seconds for Arthur to realise what that thing was, and pull himself up and towards it. Arthur placed his hand lightly on Alfred's back, and getting a shriek in return. "Alfred! Calm down, it's just me!"

Arthur could hear Alfred scrambling away. "How do I know you're not someone pretending to be Arthur? I can't see you!"

And Arthur laughed. He held his aching sides and laughed, because he finally realized why he was feeling such déjà vu. This _had_ happened before. Alfred was still the same kid who was cowering under the blankets during a bad storm, waiting for Arthur to come home and make it better.

"Alfred, are we going to replay this scene for a second time?" Arthur replied after calming himself a little. There was a flash of lightening and Arthur could see that Alfred was pressed up against the opposite wall.

"What do you mean?" Alfred said, relaxing the tiniest bit once he saw it was in fact Arthur.

Arthur smirked. "Don't you remember when this happened? You were hiding under the blankets, and didn't believe it was really me when I came in to find you."

Alfred stared blankly at the darkness ahead, before nodding in realization. But Arthur couldn't see that, so that was stupid. "Oh yeah! And you made me feel your hand to confirm that you weren't a ghost." Arthur chuckled, and Alfred couldn't help but laugh lightly with him. "That was really scary, though. I was just a little kid, and you were gone all the time. I used to stare out the window every night and wait for you."

The air became thick with a slight tension, and Arthur looked down at where he thought his legs were, but he couldn't quite tell in this darkness. "I know… 'm sorry. I never meant to be away for that long."

Alfred hummed in response. "It doesn't matter. Come here."

"Why?"

There was a frustrated exhale from across the room. "Because I'm afraid of the fucking thunder, okay? And if you laugh, I'll kill you." When no noise was heard, Alfred continued. "And I happen to remember you comforting me after I was freaked out the last time."

A strong pair of arms pulled Alfred down by the shoulders, until his head fell onto someone's legs. Holy hell, when did Arthur get over by him? "I'm not going to make fun of you for being afraid of the thunder," Okay, so maybe he was. But it wouldn't be until much later. "Especially, when it's probably my fault that you are."

Alfred hummed in reply, feeling Arthur's fingers thread lightly through his hair. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say that you cared about me right now."

Arthur pressed his lips to the American's forehead. "Shut the fuck up, Alfred."

In whatever bizarre language Arthur spoke sometimes, Alfred knew that ment he did.


End file.
